CHRIS SQUIRE

An excellent musician, surrounded by great companions wisely. If we add the almost unbeatable composition issues, we have a unique album. The excellence of those who accompany Squire, is evident in the masterful performance of each section. There is a clear relationship with fellow Yes, added to the orchestral arrangements, the flute and sax parts here and there, including the trumpeter specializing in Baroque music, John Wilbraham.

I do not consider necessary to review every song. Obviously, the largest take the top laurels. The low figure in all the numbers on the disc, with energy and virtuosity but without being a one-man protagonist. The overall construction of the songs is the main thing.

Some also are remarkable vocals and lyrics. That is evidenced by Silently Falling and Safe (Canon Song).

After this statement, it is clear that there is no waste in this offering, at least for me.

Otherwise the skeleton crew of the Chris Squire's band, consisting of Bruford, Collins, Moraz and Squire, might have never come together the way they did to record Fish Out of Water (the gentlemen are listed alphabetically, not in order of importance).

Reading previous reviews, I came to realize that Fish isn't everybody's cup of tea, and I can myself see one noticeable "deficiency" about it: the album is not chasing new horizons, or breaking creative molds, or blazing trails. But it's still a 5-star purebred symph ? IMO, not inferior musically to CTTE and a few other flagship albums of the time.

If we set aside the lack of experimentation and innovation and evaluate Fish from a musical hedonist's point of view, here is what we are likely to see (at least I do):

LUSH, VOLUPTIOS SOUND THROUGOUT. There isn't such thing as "too much bass guitar" in general, and in Fish we get plenty of it in its best pedigree ? leading and driving the music-weaving process. Thanks be to Heavens for this.

Messieurs Moraz, Bruford and Collins also do classy job on this album, along with the uncredited, but very competent musicians on woodwind and brass instruments.

SENSE OF MEASURE, BALANCE AND PROPORTION. Fish does showcase sophisticated melody lines and arrangements, but at the same time it's not excessively "florid" (thanks be to Heavens again). It's surprisingly easy to listen to, probably because the sound patterns are so masterfully integrated into an ultra-smooth and wholesome musical monument.

STABLE QUALITY THROUGHOUT. Fish doesn't have a single weak segment or a skip-worthy track. I enjoy it when it's played whole in one sitting, or only Side A or B, or even a 8-10 minute long fragment. Frankly, I don't know many other albums that have such high music to fillers ratio.

All in all, in my book it's a masterpiece of symphonic rock ? not experimental, but great nonetheless.

What's left, probably focuses on that rhythm section, so much of it sounds like music produced in a jammin' session. But that's no surprise, given that the album has been made by a bass player. There's some good interplay between Patrick Moraz and Chris, too.

One fault is that every song seems to be played at the same 'controlled' pace. So, yes, the music gets a chance to breathe, but equally, never gets going either! It's probably a bit unemotional basically.

So, simplistic, heavily rhythmic and unemotional. Worth a listen though.

Squire's solo album that has really impacted his career, is "Fish out of Water" and, although Squire obviously was out of his depth on his own finally, and released to produce a solo album, along with fellow band members Anderson, Wakeman, Howe, Moraz and also Bruford, the result is a very refreshing approach to music.

'Hold Out Your Hand' begins proceedings and the very accomplished percussion of Bill Bruford is noteable immediately. Squire's vocals are extraordinary, very high in the register as much as Anderson. Patrick Moraz is always a wizard on keyboards, Andrew Pryce Jackman handles acoustic, organ, and orchestrations. The harmonies are strong and excellent always. The time sigs change constantly and this could easily fit onto a Yes album. It seems that Squire is one of the main components of the Yes sound as is obvious here. 'You By My Side' continues the Yes sound seamlessly from the opener, and features mesmirising beauty with Jimmy Hastings' flute. The orchestra is a symphonic embellishment that works so well with this style of music.

Mel Collins on saxophone and Hastings on flute opens the wondrous 'Silently Falling', a longer song at 11 ½ minutes. The warbling flute is joined by the high falsetto vocals. A crash of sound ushers in the rhythmic figure with a bass pulsation and soaring harmonious musicianship. The flute chimes back in with Barry Rose on pipe organ. There is a freak out of Moraz manic keyboards, a hypnotic groove with piano and bass, and Bruford is awesome with percussion accents and jazz explosions. This instrumental section is absolutely mind bending and it stops suddenly as divine horns come in, and Squire's vocals return, so pleasant to the ear. This is spell binding music weaving a spell on the listener.

'Lucky Seven' is a song with jazz keyboard and Squire's dominant Rickerbacker bass sound. Again his vocals are exquisite, and the snare sound of Bruford is a welcome augmentation to the feel. The song is a sensational jazz fusion piece with Moraz maintaining a strong rhythm. Squire is an accomplished bass magician and he almost launches into a solo over the soundscape. The alto sax is lovely, played so delicately by Collins and this track is really a showcase for the sax. The rhythm has totally locked in with the odd 7/8 meter and the sax is able to pour into the musicscape supplementing the splendour of the sound.

'Safe (Canon Song)' is a 15 minute epic with very strong bass, high falsetto vocals and orchestrated synths. The melody is bright and chirpy, very much like Yes in every respect, even the vocals sound a lot like Anderson. Squire certainly does not shy away from the Yes epic structure and even throws in some very nice flute and horn sounds. The interlude with thumping bass and whimsical flute and sax is one of the highlights of the album. This one really takes off into some bombastic territory and then is brought back with angular bassline and glorious violin sounds. The orchestral arrangement is stunning and lifts the music to the stratosphere. This continues for a long time and builds to a magnificent crescendo to finish with enchanting piano. Magnificent song.

The solo album for Squire is an incredible achievement, surpassing all expectations, even rivalling other Yes members' solo efforts as being the best of the bunch. It is even referred to as the "lost" Yes album. Every track on "Fish out of Water" is offering something extraordinary and as brilliant as Yes, and Squire showed he could produce something very special even though he may have felt like a fish out of water.

I'm going to swim against the flow here and call Chris Squire's first and only solo album (I'm not counting Swiss Choir) a tragedy.

Let me be upfront. Chris Squire brings that special sauce that makes Yes music magical. He can turn an interesting piece of prog into a delightfully tasty dish. As far as I can tell, he's done this his entire career.

Unfortunately, eating a vat of straight special sauce is about as appealing as listening to this solo effort.

Piss-poor vocals aside, each song is repetitive yet overly complex. It's difficult to listen to, with no reward for doing so.

I've had this album for nearly a decade. Over the years I have given it multiple tries--only to bow in defeat and switch mid-track to something more palatable. Only now, after listening to it in its entire grotesque glory, do I feel justified in giving this heap a single star.

Yes, the bass players solo album doesn't really ring a bell of interest to many, but when talking about Yes, it does. Because not only is Chris Squire one of the most interesting 4 string players their is, he also did alot of songwriting in Yes, so it does make sense that a solo album would spark interest (as well as every other member of Yes having interesting solo outputs).

Now vocally, Chris didn't have a massive imput, only prividing backing vocals in Yes, but this album suprised me, cause 1. he actually can sing really well, and 2. doesn't he sound alot like Sting when he sings? I don't know what it is, to be honest, I think Chris is a better singer, but their is a certain similar timbre to both singers vocals.

As an album itself, it does bode some really strong moments, but to be honest, it's the epics that let it down.

I think the shorter songs bode more power and are neatly compactiable, but with the 2 epics being over 10 minutes, and one being near 15 minutes, they're quite boring at times. Now don't get me wrong, I love long songs, but these are quite weak compared to most epics. I think those longer songs were made, just to be long and fill out time on an album. Also, with this album being close to the year of the death of prog (although thats only an overstatement, it doesn't really hold alot of truth), you can see where the genre started to fail...with songs being long just to be long. Compare any of these songs to Yes epics, e.g. Close To The Edge, Heart Of The Sunrise, Ritual Nous De Soliel...they're weak in comparison, and they all seem to only have one or 2 main ideas, and can be quite repetitive.

The album also features an orchestra, which to be honest, does work really well at times. All in all, the songwriting is pretty good at times, but then it can be a bit too over indulgent, and way too drawn out.

1. Hold Out Your Hand - What an intro. Best song on the album, in my opinion (it's also the shortest...hmmm I wonder why I like it so much). Great vocals and arrangement. Interesting lyrics. Beautiful ending. 10/10

2. You By My Side - Quite atmospheric with a nice calm feeling throughout. I love the build up. 9/10

3. Silently Falling - Beautiful intro. This song is way too long. Has some interesting changes and parts to it, but its just way too drawn out. 6/10

4. Lucky 7 - Very jazzy. In fact, when listening to this song, Dave Brubeck always comes into my mind, I love that cool jazz contemporary feel to it. This song has a great fusion of styles in it. 10/10

5. Safe (Canon Song) - Great orchestration. Still a bit too long. The recapitulation of the themes is pretty interesting. I like the ending, but even then, it feels drawn out. 8/10

CONCLUSION: Some great moments, but still, its pompousness is its weakness. This is where self indulgence can fail an album at times, and it's such a shame, cause it did have great potential and great moments. Although, those seperate moments are still good enough. I think Yes fans would love this album, but Prog fans in general, might have a few problems with it.

His vocals, up to that point only heard as background to Jon Anderson, are in a similar range as Anderson's but distinctly different in tone. A little less full, but still with the power to carry off these tunes.

The songs are all pure symphonic rock, with, of course, strong bass lines. And Squire gets some assistance from an all-star band, including Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz, Mel Collins and Jimmy Hastings.

The best track is the longest. Safe (Canon Song) is an orchestral piece, that also allows Squire to perform a section with his bass playing multiple track simultaneously (as he did on a few classic Yes tracks) to great effect.

While not quite a masterpiece, this album belong in any serious prog collector's library.